


refrigerator doors

by danverspotsticker



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, embarrassingly long oneshot about a seconds long shot in a single episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 05:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29820396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danverspotsticker/pseuds/danverspotsticker
Summary: tara breaks up with willow. to her pleasant surprise, xander is the one driving the getaway car.(or, xander and tara deserved a conversation or two.)
Relationships: Anya Jenkins & Tara Maclay, Tara Maclay/Willow Rosenberg (referenced), Xander Harris & Tara Maclay, Xander Harris/Anya Jenkins
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	refrigerator doors

**Author's Note:**

> i need to be restricted from the internet i Am working on the next chapter of wddsd but i also saw a screenshot of xander and anya's fridge and they had a picture of willow and tara and i thought about it for hours and then wrote about it. so. sorry about this, gay people must be stopped.

It starts with a phone call.

Technically, it starts with Tara bringing up _whatever_ is happening to his best friend at his and Anya’s dinner table and it’s clearly not all their business, as much as Xander would love to know where the person he loves has gone under whoever Willow appears to be lately.

They escape to the bedroom to answer a phone no one in the room believes to have really been ringing. Despite his pleading glare, Anya listens to whatever they’re saying. Xander doesn’t, he doesn’t need to know the details, he can already see that whatever track Willow has decided on is one that leads to Tara getting off. But he watches Anya listen and she’s wearing her usual you’re-lucky-Willow-is-your-best-friend-because-I-don’t-like-her face until it hardens into something angrier than Xander’s seen before.

He doesn’t need Anya to say anything to know that Willow is in the wrong, he’s met Tara, he knows that in the matchup of her versus Willow, the one being stupid is very unlikely to be Tara. But Anya turns to him and says, “If we weren’t getting married very soon, I would be going to D’Hoffryn and getting my powers back.”

Xander nods, “So, it’s bad then.”

He doesn’t get an answer, only a glare. And later, when he remembers things like the childhood and the friends and the Willow that has defined that, he sees Tara’s face, sees the anger and the sadness there but no surprise, and he finds little other than anger at Willow. But he leaves the sewer and the both of them behind him and he and Anya head home.

When they’re in the car on the way home, Xander explains as much as he understands. “Willow had this crystal, it was black, I think? I stepped on it and we got all of our memories back. But Tara didn’t really look surprised that it was Willow, not the way me and Dawn were. So, I think maybe she already knew.”

Anya nods like she knew already, too. From the passenger seat she watches his eyebrows furrow, and she explains, “Willow’s done the spell before, on Tara. They’ve been fighting, which we know. But apparently that knowledge slipped Tara’s mind.”

Xander grips the steering wheel harder than is probably necessary. _“_ Was _taken_ from her mind you mean.”

Anya nods, tired but potent anger that matches his own in her voice. “Yeah.”

They get home, their conversation sparse. As he silently makes them dinner, Xander is a little scared that Willow and Tara clearly knew each other and even Buffy seemed to know Spike on some level and she hates him and Xander knows that he couldn’t have picked Anya out of a line-up as someone he knew at all. Anya is mostly trying to figure out if keeping the whole Giles thing a secret is a better idea than telling Xander she made out with his father figure as she flits around the kitchen to help him with ingredients.

Xander hears the phone ring but Anya gets to it first. When it ends, Anya asks for his car.

That’s where it really starts. Xander, smartly if he doesn’t want to lose both his car and the woman he loves in a hideous car wreck, says no. But that’s met with Anya’s pleading eyes that he is _awfully bad_ at saying no to and, “I promise I will drive with all the rules of driving in mind. I’ll even listen to those annoying signs on the roads.”

“You mean _stop signs?_ _Ahn_ , me and three different attempts at getting your learner’s permit would disagree that you even know what the rules of driving _are._ If it’s so important, I can drive you.”

Anya stressfully shakes her head. _“No,_ there needs to be room and I don’t know how much stuff she has, and I don’t want to have to make her make more than one trip and -”

Xander holds up his hands, Anya ceases for a moment. “You wanna elaborate for those of us who just tuned in?”

Anya still looks worried. “Tara’s moving out, she needs somewhere to stay, and I wasn’t going to ask you because _I know_ you and Willow have known each other since you were in diapers or whatever, but she has nowhere else and we have an extra bedroom and -”

Xander grasps her shoulders, rubbing them to soothe her. “You make sure the spare room is safe for human occupation and I’ll go get her, okay?”

Anya calms down. “You will?”

Xander places a soft kiss to her forehead as he pockets his keys on the counter with one hand. “Of course. Will’ll be fine, Buffy lives with her. Can’t say I’m exactly happy enough with her right now to be a good friend. So, I can very much go get Tara.” Putting on a voice that unintentionally mirrors his father’s, he attempts to lighten the mood. “Plus, I’m a big strong man, I can’t let two little ladies carry boxes.”

Anya scoffs. “Don’t be an idiot.”

Raising his hand to his chest in feigned woundedness as he opens the apartment door, he says, voice normal, “You ask too much of me.”

He hears her voice quickly calling out as the door closes behind him, “I love you!”

Reopening the door a little, he peeks his head back through smiling, “I love you, too.”

\--

In retrospect, maybe letting Anya come would have been a better idea. Not that he wants to endanger her and Tara or that he doesn’t want to help Tara, just, he and Tara have never been especially talkative. Even in the months when Buffy’s death required their near cohabitation of the Summer’s house, they found more common ground through exhaustion with Willow and Anya’s interactions. Even though they had subsided to only the occasional barb, there had been a few days when the only alleviation was escape to the backyard or to do some activity with Dawn.

The closest they’d gotten to a real conversation was when they’d taken her to a Zoo only to have Dawn wander off when they ran into friends of hers. Willow and Anya decided to break out into a near war earlier that morning, Anya suggesting that Willow cast a protection spell on the Buffybot and Willow deciding that it was a personal attack on both her mystical and technical skill sets. Xander was too tired to consider who was in the right. Both of them attempted to rope Tara into it and Xander, armed with three tickets to the Sunnydale Zoo because his new co-worker misunderstood that Dawn was a young daughter of his and Anya’s after a story at work and gifted them to him, suggested that the three of them leave to make use of the tickets before they expire. Tara jumped at the escape, mumbling something about too many bunnies and frogs and spiders before either of them could suggest them joining. Exhausted and desperate, Tara climbed into the passenger seat with a thankful but false smile on her face.

It’s the same one he sees now. A stutter he hasn’t heard in full effect in nearly a year burdens her voice as she says, “Th-thank you. Y-you d-didn’t…” She stops herself, sighing in frustration.

Xander shakes his head, offering the best smile he can manage before she can try again. “I’m getaway guy. I’ve got no magic, no super strength, no special government chip, no secret past as a glowing ball of energy, no super education from some British jerks - ‘cept Giles - and I have never been a demon.” He furrows his eyebrows. “Do you know where I was going with that?”

Amused, Tara offers, “You’re g-getaway guy?”

His eyes widen. “Right! I _am_ powerless, but I _do_ have a car and a spare bedroom. This is my kind of situation.”

Tara nods. “I’m s-serious, W-W-Will is your best f-friend. I would g-get it if…”

Xander turns his head towards her for a brief moment in disbelief before he turns back toward the road. “What? If I just stopped caring about you?”

Tara shakes her head. “N-no, I just m-mean…”

Xander nods. “Yeah. I’m sure my lifelong best friend handbook says something about needing to get a tub of ice cream and coming up with fake reasons you’re a terrible person. But Will’s a big girl, some of the consequences of her actions include me not seeing her for the next few hours minimum to keep myself from saying things that are _definitely_ not in the best friend handbook.”

Tara looks at Xander sadly. “I’m sorry.”

Xander shakes his head sharply. “Very much _not_ your fault in any capacity. Just, you’re my friend. Willow is someone I love very much but I don’t know if she’s my friend right now. So, if it’s okay with you, I think I will continue to drive you to my apartment where the woman I love very much will threaten vengeance against the woman you love, and we’ll all pretend we _aren’t_ watching the train wreck that is someone we love very much destroying themselves and running away so the crash doesn’t kill us too.”

Tara just nods, having no response to the clear fear on Xander’s face that looks a lot like how she feels most of the time these days. The rest of the car is silent and Xander feels the anger he wishes he didn’t feel at Willow right now simmer back into the sadness it was before until it churns his stomach into a seemingly permanent nausea.

As he pulls into the parking lot, he looks up and he can see Anya flicking a sheet to lay over the spare bed where he knows there are sheets they’ve never used on it already. He figures it’s a usual symptom of her nervousness. He calls it her over-humanity; the way she does chores she usually calls stupid or inane and absurdly human every time there is something she doesn’t want to confront. He smiles softly about her as he pulls into the designated parking lot.

Tara tries to take her bag, but he grabs it first, shaking his head. “Do you need any of these boxes right away? There’s security around so they’ll be safe until tomorrow morning, I’ll bring them in when I head to work, I just don’t want us to be out here in the dark longer than we need to be.”

Tara shakes her head. “No, everything essential is in my bag.”

Xander nods softly, locking the doors. “Great, okay.”

When they reach the apartment door, Xander doesn’t even put the key in the lock before it opens and Anya drags Tara inside, offering her a hug that looks to be mostly an attempt to break Tara’s ribs. She doesn’t seem to mind, the way her body seems to relax into it, the constant furrow between her eyes that Xander hadn’t realized was there until it was gone, slipping away.

He steps inside too, the door closing behind him as he places the bag on the counter. He hangs up his jacket and stands behind Anya as she finally releases Tara from her grasp. “How are you?”

Tara smiles awkwardly and just shakes her head as she wraps her arms around herself. Anya nods. “Right, stupid question.”

Tara corrects her. “N-not stupid, I just don’t r-really have an answer that isn’t crying r-right now, and I’m k-kind of t-tired of th-that.”

Xander doesn’t really know how to be here for her. He hadn’t realized the distance between them until Willow wasn’t there to fill it. But he wants to fill it, wants to say the things he’s said to Willow about her, in defence of her occasionally when Willow worried about a past she didn’t hear about.

He wants to tell her, _hey, I’m kind of like you but I don’t have magic, just a crappy Dad and a Mom who feels about as present as dead these days,_ but that sounds too self-centred _._

He wants to say, _I’m sorry Willow’s tendency to selfishness when she’s scared has turned into her being so terrible to you,_ but that sounds like a defence he isn’t intending to make.

He wants to clarify, _I think you’re cool and one of the best people I know, even if Willow wasn’t the reason - I would still be your friend,_ but that sounds too simple.

So, he doesn’t say anything, he stands quietly behind Anya as she reminds Tara, “We already had dinner but there’s leftovers on the counter and in the fridge. There’s also other food if you want to make anything for yourself, if you need anything else, I can get Xander to run to the store for you. Oh! The spare bedroom is all yours, ignore the boxes, they’re left over from Xander’s sales rep days. I’m here if you need anything, if you want to talk or watch a movie or just sit or _seek vengeance_ … y’know… supportive girl things.”

Tara just offers Anya a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, a simple but sad recognition on her face and Xander wonders if she sees the similarities in Anya’s rambling that he does sometimes that take him back to rants between classes in middle school. He figures now probably isn’t the time to ask that. He just offers a supportive nod when he sees her eyes flicker over to him. “I think I’m just going to go to bed, if that’s okay.”

Anya nods. “Yes. Okay. I will also go to bed, Xander probably will too if he wants anything from me.” He breathes out a quiet _oh my God_ while Tara turns red across from him and shakes her head. Anya continues on, “Xander has work early in the morning so unless you’re also insane and naturally wake up at 6 am, he won’t be around tomorrow.”

Xander lovingly rolls his eyes at the dig. “Anya, some people just wake up earlier.”

Anya nods her agreement. “Yes. When they’re insane. Tara is a normal person.”

Tara smiles. “S-sorry, I think I’m probably in that insane category as well. I’m a pretty early riser.”

Anya looks betrayed. “I’m surrounded by crazy people, this is terrible.”

She turns and heads into their bedroom and Xander offers an awkward smile to fill her presence. “That’s my fiancée, always knows how to make it about her.”

Tara shakes her head fondly. “It was welcomed. It’s nice to not have things be about me for a second.”

Xander hums. “Well, if you need anything, feel free to knock.”

Tara smiles, knowing she won’t. “Of course.”

\--

Anya’s proficiency at ramming a variety of her limbs into his and causing extensive bruising while remaining steadily asleep would be impressive if his skin wasn’t twenty different colours. Being awake does prompt him to grab a glass of water though, and in the dim light of the living room lamp, he sees Tara standing in front of the fridge, her shoulders shaking with what he already knows are tears. He steps towards her turned body, making sure to step heavily so he doesn’t scare her. She hears and he listens as she sniffs, “Sorry, Ahn. I know it’s late, I was just getting some water.”

Xander speaks softly. “Two things…” Tara turns towards him in surprise and his suspicions are confirmed by her wet eyes and steady brow as she attempts to stop herself from continuing to cry. Xander continues, “One, you don’t need to apologize for water or _anything_ , we invited you to stay for a reason. Two, I’m definitely not Anya.”

Tara nods. “I’d caught that and thank you.”

His eyes trail back to the fridge she was staring at and his eyes fall on the picture she was looking at. Willow and Tara’s heads lean against each other, both beaming into the camera Dawn chased the four of them with the day she got it. In a fluke on Dawn’s part, he and Anya ended up with the printed picture of Willow and Tara and vice versa. In a move that made him more emotional than he would ever admit to anyone lest he be stripped of his man-status, Anya pinned it to their fridge. When Buffy was dead, it used to be a reminder that there were still things worth smiling about. More recently it’s been a reminder that Willow and Tara were capable of happiness at all.

(Someday, it might be a reminder of a friend he doesn’t think he’ll see again, and the woman who died in her arms.)

Either way, right now it mostly seems to be a harmful presence. “I’m sorry.”

Tara shakes her head. “She’s your best friend, I think I’d be more upset if there was no proof of her here.”

Xander bobs his head. In the quiet of his absentee response, he finds an unrelated one. “Since we’re talking; I’m sorry for… accusing you in the Magic Box when Buffy came back. That wasn’t… that wasn’t fair of me.”

Tara snorts humourlessly, a soft and passive noise. “It was. I think I knew then that whatever Willow was doing… w-with her half-truths and not talking to us stuff… I knew where it would lead. And y-you’re like Will’s heart so when you had the same concern, I got s-scared, I guess. Because if it was just me then maybe it was just my own ins-security. And then you seemed scared too, so it was real. I d-didn’t want it to be real yet.”

Xander just hums as he leans against the counter behind him and Tara follows, her face crumpling as she says. “I h-hate th-that it’s real.”

Looking into her tearful eyes, Xander’s well up too, angry for and sad for her at the same time. All he has to offer is a simple, “Yeah,” As he pulls her into his arms.

They’ve only really done this once before; it was early after Buffy died. A few days at most, Tara had been awake for days trying to avoid nightmares to no one's knowledge until he’d walked in on her laugh-sobbing trying to deal with the excess of food the Buffybot decided to make that day. He’d been stuck then, though he does love her, he was not the preferable option. But they were at their various schools and work when Xander decided to stop by at lunch. He’d called Willow pretty quickly, but the fifteen-minute bus ride had been filled by Tara sobs into his shirt.

They both spent most of the time apologizing, her for getting snot all over him and him for forgetting that in the mess of death and maybe concussions, Tara spent weeks without her mind. It’d been weird for him then, realizing how _small_ she is when she’s always seemed so big. It was probably because of the Willow thing, but she just seemed like she was different than the rest of them or something, was further away from all the crap that tended to twist the rest of them into scared kids. But crying in the too-bright Summers’ kitchen at 2pm on a Thursday as he rested his chin on her shaking head, she’d been as small as the rest of them.

Now, she feels equally small, but his arms around her feel a little more natural. When Tara takes a deep breath to steady herself, her face pressed into his shoulder, he figures she probably agrees too. Maybe it’s a scooby thing; “face this number of traumatic events together, get comfort out of each other’s hugs for free!”

Tara tilts her face against him to speak, “I m-mostly… feel stupid? I _knew_ , I saw stuff before Glory, even. And I ignored it for so long I just… I shouldn’t have ignored it.”

Xander shrugs. “There was a lot going on. I think you’re allowed to ignore things because they make things easier.”

Tara sniffs. “I think that would be kind of hypocritical of me to believe when that’s why I left.”

Xander stands up a little straighter to look down at her. _“Emphatically_ , not the same.”

“I kn-know. I just… it feels like, I don’t know. There are pieces of me that didn’t exist without Willow. Even without the wh-whole: I m-might n-not remember everything about wh-who I am thing, I was barely a person before I kn-knew Willow. Before I kn-knew any of y-you.”

Xander gets it, but still corrects her. “Well, we’re all still here. We’re not going anywhere. maybe Willow doesn’t have to disappear from who you are, either.”

At the way Tara looks down, letting her hair fall around her face in a reminiscent but unwelcomed gesture, Xander realizes his error and apologizes, “Sorry, that came out wrong. That wasn’t a defensive, you-should-get-back-together-with-her thing, I wholeheartedly agree that you’re doing the right thing.”

Tara nods. “R-right, yeah. It’ll help her in the long run.”

Xander raises his eyebrows. “I mean… yeah, probably? I was mostly talking about you and not having Willow pick and choose which parts of you make her feel okay.”

Tara sucks in a breath and Xander back tracks. “Sorry, foot steadily likes to live in my mouth. Just, not everything Willow made you see in yourself is about her, you’re the one who contains those things. She might’ve been the first person who helped you see the parts of you that you think are cool, but they were already there.”

Tara nods. Eyes filling with tears again as they fall back onto the picture in front of her.

Xander’s eyes follow hers and he smiles, refocusing the subject when she offers no additional words. “That was a good day. Getting Dawn that camera was smart.”

Tara shrugs. “She didn’t really ask for anything, I think she thought it would’ve been selfish to since Buffy died so recently. But she kept talking about this art class she took and how fun the photography unit was. It seemed like she would like it.”

Xander laughs. “Yeah, she turned us into her models for the day.”

Tara breaks into a smile; it still doesn’t reach her eyes but the fondness in her voice tells Xander she’s trying. She echoes his earlier words, “That _was_ a good day. I d-don’t think Buffy came up at all, not in the bad way at least. I don’t even think Willow stayed up fixing the Buffybot that night.”

Xander smiles, a small huff of laughter coming out through his nose. “I even think Giles let out a smile or two that day.”

Tara nods her agreement. “Yeah, after he finally let Dawn take a picture of him, for a man who claims he’s getting too old to be fighting every night, he sure could keep away from Dawn.”

Xander laughs boisterously before he remembers Anya is still asleep and stops himself. “Yeah, though I think I would also be more scared of Dawn running after me than a vampire. She’s definitely more threatening.”

With an _extremely_ serious face, Tara agrees, “Oh, absolutely. Given the choice between a soulless monster who would murder me given the chance, or someone who isn’t a teenage girl, I would definitely choose the vampire.”

Xander speaks when his laughter subsides. “Seems like the fair choice.”

Tara doesn’t offer any reply and Xander looks over at her to see her staring at the ground, a hard look on her face that he recognizes as one designated to keep her from crying. Taking a guess, he offers, “She’ll get over it.”

Tara shakes her head. “She was _so_ mad, Xander. She didn’t even…”

Her mask breaks and tears start to stream down her face. “S-she didn’t say _anything_.”

Xander wraps an arm around her shoulders and squeezes, Tara lets her head rest on his shoulder. “She’s a kid. Plus, she loves you bucketloads. Her ability to hold a grudge is miniscule.”

Tara raises her eyebrows. “She still talks about that girl Kirsty.”

Xander rolls his eyes with enthusiasm. “Ah, but you forget, Kirsty is jerky-mean-face, and you are her very cool witch friend who has taken care of her for the past few months and takes her on movie dates where she consumes all the sugar she wants because you can’t say no to her. I’m sure if you showed up with a milkshake, she wouldn’t remember that she’d decided she is supposed to hate you.”

Tara shrugs under his arm. Xander nudges her. _“I promise_. I wouldn’t lie to you. She said she was never going to speak to either me or Willow ever again after the Very-Stupid-Never-Going-To-Speak-of-it-Again-Homecoming-and-After-Events Debacle of ‘98. I think she lasted about two days before she started talking to us again.”

Tara hums, considering. Xander lets her. The quiet hum of the refrigerator in front of them is substantial enough noise that his mind doesn’t drift too far. Tara’s voice eventually breaks back through, “I’m _so_ angry at her. But I don’t…” She trails off and there’s something in her face that rattles a familiar, hurting part of Xander’s chest.

Knowing that the pronoun no longer indicates Dawn, he nods, hazarding another guess with the knowledge his rattling chest produces. “You don’t like being angry?”

Tara nods back, pulling away from him as she wipes away some of the tears that have started to drip off her face. Xander smiles the way he knows usually makes Willow and Buffy laugh, hoping it helps. “I really don’t like being mad either, but a friend of mine has told me that being angry doesn’t make me my dad, which _is_ extremely specific advice. But I have this nagging feeling, it kind of feels like an asshole who walked into the Magic Box one day, that it just might be applicable here.”

Tara looks at him and a small smile breaks on her face, the first one of the night that Xander would call genuine. “She’s said that to me, too.” She pauses, the smile turning into a tired smirk, “You’re fine to say her name.”

Xander shrugs. “She’s not the important part. She might be kind of an idiot, but she’s right about that.”

Tara nods. “Yeah.” She sighs, “That doesn’t make it easier, though.”

Xander shakes his head. “No, it definitely doesn’t.”

They both stand silently against the counter for a moment before Xander’s eyes light up. “We could egg her house!”

Tara looks confused for a moment and then she laughs softly. “Dawn and Buffy both live there too.”

Xander leans back, dejected. “Right.”

They fall back into silence, so long that Xander considers going back to bed. He’s never been good at letting silence be comfortable, too scared that it meant there was discomfort building between him and whoever else is there that he’d grown adjusted to filling it with whatever jokes or unnecessary words he could find. As a kid he was always scared of what he might come up with if he thought too much, Willow used to express the opposite fear, that if she didn’t think about everything then she might figure out the right thing to say. Jesse used to laugh and call them both weirdos, comfortable with telling Willow when her words wandered miles away where no one could catch up or telling Xander that they were being quiet because Willow was trying to do homework while they both pretended to so that she didn’t feel bad about it.

Tara eventually breaks the silence before he leaves. “I missed you.”

Xander tilts his head. “Sorry?”

Tara shrugs. “Since Buffy came back. It’s _definitely_ good that you and Anya didn’t _need_ to be around the house to help look after Dawn all the time, but of the many not-great things of summer, you guys being there was definitely in the plus column.”

Xander nods. “Sorry. Life got…” He doesn’t know how to finish that sentence between a resurrected best friend, a now second absentee father figure, and a different best friend who seems set on self-destruction.

Tara laughs lightly. “Yeah. It did.”

As the silence returns, Xander looks over to the clock resting above the stove. _“Crap_ , I have to be up in a few hours.”

Tara’s eyes follow Xander’s. “Oh, yeah. Sleep sounds pretty good right now.”

Xander nods. “Sleep tends to at least alleviate terrible-feelingness for a few hours at a time.”

Tara smiles. “Thanks, Xander.”

“Oh, no problem! Happy to share some wisdom about the great art of sleep.”

Tara lets out a laughing breath. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know.” Xander smiles, “You don’t have to thank me for being your friend. You’re kind of a pretty cool person.”

Tara looks down, smiling as her hair shields her face. Xander nods at the familiar motion. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow. Sleep well.”

As he walks away, Tara stares at the photo of the absence she feels that guarantees she won’t be sleeping well at all. “You too.”

\--

The next morning, when Tara looks at the fridge again expecting a pang in her chest at the sight of her own face beaming next to Willow’s, she finds relief when the half of the picture is covered, protecting her from the self-inflicted misery that was her fixation on it the night before. Calling over to Anya who’s on the couch watching some cartoon that she claims is much better than Looney Tunes because it doesn’t have the ‘terrifying rabbit’, Tara says, “You didn’t have to do this.”

Anya looks over from the couch and shrugs. “Oh, that was Xander’s. He won’t let me summon D’Hoffryn, so he suggested that as a compromise. There’s a sticky note on the counter if you want to cover up the other ones but we figured since she’s still straight in those pictures then it’s okay.”

Tara doesn’t correct Anya as she tries to stop the emotion that rises in her throat. Anya’s threats were expected, essentially promised the minute the two of them sat in Giles’ bathroom conversing while the people they loved shouted in the other room and she’d proclaimed, “I like you.” Xander’s support hadn’t been, his friendship with Willow was always something she’d felt inadequate against on Willow’s side, watching the way Willow retreated into their friendship when missing Buffy got too heavy. With that, Tara assumed - apparently incorrectly - that Xander would’ve easily sided with Willow. It’s an unexpected relief, she thinks, the comfort that comes with the support of their early morning conversation and Xander’s early morning cover-up. Looking over at Anya, she swallows down her tears as she finds her voice. “You could’ve just taken the picture down.”

Anya looks at her like she’s just claimed that her hair was on fire, squinting, and says in a delivery as if it's the most obvious rebuttal in the world, “But you’re in it.”


End file.
